


Old Friends

by Ryface



Series: Song Shuffle Challenge [8]
Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Tissue Warning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-22
Updated: 2012-11-22
Packaged: 2017-11-19 06:31:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/570246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryface/pseuds/Ryface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick had always expected to die young.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old Friends

**Author's Note:**

> song: Simon & Garfunkel, "Old Friends/Bookends"
> 
> Time it was, and what a time it was, it was  
> A time of innocence, a time of confidences  
> Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph  
> Preserve your memories, they're all that's left you

Dick had always expected to die young. It wasn't a particularly negative thought or a doubt of his abilities, but a reasonable expectation of someone in his line of work. After all, so many of his friends had gone before their times.

He expected to go out in the middle of a mission, in a blaze of glory, or by a stupid slip up at a crucial moment, or some kind of sabotage like his parents had.  
  
Tula had been the first he watched die. Then Jason. Then Stephanie, years later and too soon after she'd taken up the Batgirl mantle, and Bruce had sworn again that he wouldn't see another memorial in the cave. The next was Barry, though that hadn't lasted the first time. He'd watched with pride while a still-grieving Wally joined the Justice League in his uncle's place both times.   
  
Conner had been unexpected, but then, even Clark had died once. He'd held a sobbing M'gann at the funeral, her pain radiating from her in physical waves as well as psychic. No one was surprised at how reckless she became after he was gone, and in the end, everyone was surprised she lasted as long as she did before frying her own mind along with an enemy's.  
  
The hardest had been Wally. Even harder than losing Bruce. He had been ready to retire and let Bart take the Flash's mantle when it happened. After all, he was 43 and had two kids to think of. But there was an attack and Wally couldn't resist the call to protect his city. Dick hadn't even been able to attend the funeral. He'd attended Artemis's and Kaldur's, Roy's, Zatanna and Raquel and Mal...  
  
There had been others, old and new, dozens of teenagers rising up to follow in the footsteps of himself, Kaldur, Wally, Conner, M'gann, and Artemis. Children of original heroes, legacies passed down through generations. Even Wally's kids became heroes, and his daughter met her end in costume, fighting even more fiercely than her father.  
  
Sixty years was a long time to watch heroes come and go, Dick thought as he stiffly slid between the covers of his bed. He'd never expected to outlast all of them, but he had. He felt tired, the weight of his long life weighing heavily on him. He wasn't sad anymore. He was too old to be sad for lives that had burned so brightly in their time, but he could still remember them fondly as he drifted off to sleep.  
  
   
  
When he didn't come down for breakfast the next morning, Damian found him, peaceful in his bed, with a faint smile on his face.


End file.
